Hospital Visits
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [post-04, pre-epilogue] From the moment he entered the emergency room, there were people flowing in and out.
1. Time

**A/N:** Written for the Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak task, and for the drabble123 challenge on livejournal, table: random 2 and prompt #12 – time. Each drabble is exactly 200 words as counted by the word count on MSWord.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 1**

It was the Doctor that interrupted their reunion, putting a gloved hand on his patient's shoulder. It was at that point that the tangled huddle of children realised that Kouichi had slumped tiredly onto his brother in the excitement.

'Ni-san!' Kouji momentarily panicked, and understandably so; the fresh scare still burnt his mind.

'I'm fine,' the other mumbled.

'Unlikely,' the Doctor said, overhearing. 'Considering your heart stopped for a few minutes.' Indeed, he could feel the slight trembling. 'But I'm here to sort all that out, and the rest of you children will have to come back tomorrow.'

No amount of protests would sway the Doctor, and the five subdued yet content children filed out of the emergency room.

'Can we come back tomorrow?' Kouji asked urgently.

'Visiting hours only,' a nurse replied, before smiling kindly under her face-mask. 'Don't worry; we'll take good care of him.'

Still, they were a little anxious when the doors closed behind them, though the fact that Tomoki had managed to spot a tiny wave from Kouichi rested their minds. Still, Kouji thought firmly, he couldn't be completely satisfied until his brother was discharged with a clean bill of health. And the others agreed.


	2. Chill

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #18 – chill.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 2**

Kouichi found himself wishing for a blanket, which wasn't odd in an of itself but was, in the circumstances, perhaps not what one would expect to be his top priority. But he was cold, so it seemed perfectly logical at the time.

After all, he had thought he had died – expected to really – but hadn't known he'd quite literally fallen under that label until the Doctor mentioned it.

And, from the expression the Doctor was wearing when he requested a blanket, it appeared as though the other was wondering as to his sanity.

Thankfully, his brain was too numb to consider his near-death – or rather _death_ experience. He was exhausted. He just wanted sleep…and a blanket, because he didn't think he would be able to sleep if he didn't stop trembling first.

But Kouichi had to wait for his blanket. The initial Doctor left and another one came. A neurologist, and she fired questions so fast Kouichi could barely keep up. But the constant stream was, after some time, calming and by the time they were done, the neurologist seemed satisfied and Kouichi realised he hadn't been cold after all.

Though he did get the blanket. And it was comfortable.


	3. Unlikely

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #05 – unlikely.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 3**

It was unlikely Tomoko would beat Shibuya Hospital's visitng hours, but a nurse assured Kouichi that a blind eye was generally turned when parent visitations were involved. It was a comfort to know, as Kouichi found himself feeling rather lonely and uncomfortable when he woke up from his little lap.

His mother arrived about half an hour later, but a nurse had beaten her and was busy fussing over his blankets and trying to convince him that the lumps of brown and white on the silver tray were, in fact, edible.

They looked like lumps of dirt, and their very smell was making him nauseous. The nurse was an unsuccessful distraction as well; she chattered quite cheerfully but Kouichi was simply unable to follow her. And whenever he got lost in the middle of a conversation, he'd look elsewhere. Namely the inedible food.

Tomoko had come, and after a little fussing on her part, set to work running her fingers very gently through his hair. She left the side he had hit alone, but even then the warm embrace lulled him into comfort and the repetitive motion into sleep.

He didn't notice the spoon travelling to and from his mouth.


	4. Strange

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #14 – strange.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 4**

He woke up to an unfamiliar room and alone, and it was a struggle to understand, at first. His room was smaller and more cluttered. And they didn't have wires dangling from anywhere. And the curtains were wrong.

It took a moment before he remembered. He was in the hospital. After falling down the stairs. After spending months in the digital world, constantly in company: with Cherubimon and the other warriors in the Venus Rose, and then with Kouji and the others…

With his brother and his friends.

And then the nurses and doctors and his mother.

Who'd been there when he'd fallen asleep.

He tried not to move his head. He just looked around. Her work purse was there, on a stiff looking plastic chair. And a cardigan he assumed she'd been wearing over her shirt. Or she'd gone home and changed in between. He couldn't remember; he hadn't looked that closely or thought to remember.

Funny how significant it was in the scene now. It could tell him more than the silence of the room, even if it didn't really matter. Because the things left behind meant she was planning on coming back, and the purse meant soon.


	5. Measure

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #02 – measure.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 5**

His mother returned before the breakfast came, and most of the time in between went in to her fussing about at the room and him. She tucked the covers neatly in, smoothed his pillow without jarring his head, gently stroked his hair and almost lulled him back to sleep before the nurse's cheery voice and the squeak of trolley wheels interrupted that haze.

He slowly ate the meal, and didn't mind his mother coaxing small bits of fruit into his mouth and essentially feeding him because it was comforting and warm and fuzzy and he wasn't the sort of person to feel embarrassed about such things anyway. Maybe it was because the moments were more precious. Because his mother was always so busy working so they could have as comfortable a life as she could manage for them…

But there was something else as well. Some uncomfortable thing that kept him to some degree alert, waiting. Was his mother worried? Scared? Hurt? Angry? Did her boss give her a hard time to let her be here with him?

Nothing gave a hint except the hand threading his hair, at least until breakfast was done and he was feeling more awake.


	6. Lock

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #07 – lock.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 6**

His mother suddenly leaned over the rail and hugged him around the middle. That was after the nurse had gone with the breakfast tray and said someone would be there in an hour to take bloods or gases or something.

He managed to get a hand out from under the covers and give her an awkward one-hand hug in return.

'How did this happen?' her voice shook. So did her hands, but most of her weight was on the rails. She'd done that on purpose, possibly. Trying to keep a fragile something from breaking further but at the same time wanting to cling to it after almost losing it forever. 'You scared me.'

The silence was heavy. 'I'm sorry,' Kouichi whispered.

'It was an accident.' The shaking was squashed. Tomoko straightened, looking the part of the adult. 'It was an accident,' she repeated sternly. 'Unless someone pushed you or you jumped.'

'I tripped.' He knew what his mother meant by the question.

'It was an accident. No-one's fault,' she repeated.

He almost smiled. It was just how she'd try to convince him of things when he was small. Repeating, closing loopholes…

But his mother was struggling to not cry again.


	7. Perhaps

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #11 – perhaps.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 7**

Perhaps it was lucky that falling down the stairs had led to the Digital World, because it would have been far harder to absolve guilt otherwise. As it was, he thought it was worth it. And not just for him, otherwise his mother's brief crying spell would have clung to his mind and drawn blood.

He got to meet Kouji, and become close in a way that would never have happened in this world. A world where there were only six people was far different to one with six billions. And fighting to save things: themselves, friends, the world… that was very different to just existing, still searching for a purpose.

Now what was left was to show the fruits. Kouji and their mother meeting. He wondered what that would be like. She might cry again. But they'll be tears towards something happier, he was sure.

Or…now that he had all the time in the world to _think_ , he wasn't. What if he'd dug skeletons out of the closet instead? Skeletons better left buried.

But the rational part of him didn't think so. His mother had been lonely too. Looking for something not in front of her…something that wasn't there.


	8. Excite

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #03 – excite.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 8**

Kouichi was surprised to find Kouji in his room the moment visiting hours started. Especially since it was a school day, from memory.

'Skipping one day won't kill me,' said Kouji, rolling his eyes.

Considering how he'd snapped at Junpei for impaling death before, it showed how much more relaxed he was now, since the world and all of them were safe.

And worried because he wouldn't stop shooting glances. And possibly excited as well, particularly when he noticed the purse there. If their roles had been reversed, Kouichi was sure he'd have found a good hiding place by now. The bathroom maybe – that but that was too risky. And under the bed didn't sound like a great idea, and this room wasn't private long stay so no closet.

'Where's 'kaa-san?'

Kouichi almost laughed, but managed to hold it in. Kouji had tried to sound nonchalant but failed miserably, and 'kaa-san had flowed so easily off his lips. It'd done that in the digital world too…but his mind had been on other matters then.

'Working,' Kouichi replied. 'She'll drop by when she can, she said.' After a pause, he clarified. 'She works here.'

'In this hospital? Talk about a coincidence.'


	9. Familiar

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #19 – familiar.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 9**

Kouichi was explaining his mother's work when he heard her voice down the hallway and broke off. Kouji picked the pause up immediately, but not the voice. He recognised their mother's face though when she stopped in the doorway.

And from the look on her face, she recognised him too.

Though to be fair, Kouji couldn't have been anyone else, considering Kouichi was still in the hospital bed with a bandage around his head.

Kouji looked like he was trying to stop himself from running forward and hugging her. And their mother was subtler about it but Kouichi thought that she was trying to stop the same. And he doubted that, in Kouji's situation, he'd have been able to say a word – but he wasn't in Kouji's situation. He was in his own and this was something he'd always have to explain.

'Obaa-chan told me,' he explained. 'About Kouji. So I – err – ' Apparently he hadn't prepared very well because he stopped there, fishing for a word that wouldn't tell a too long story right then.

'He found me,' Kouji said simply. 'And I wanted to meet you, 'kaa-san.'

Their mother crossed the threshold and embraced him tightly.

Kouichi grinned.


	10. Between

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #15 – between.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 10**

Tomoko let go of Kouji and then embraced her other son – carefully, but with equal fervour.

'Silly boy,' she mumbled into the other's hair. 'So this is why you were so distracted.'

Kouichi took that to mean "I'm happy but you still made me very worried and be careful next time…assuming a similar situation ever arises again."

'Hai, 'kaa-san,' he said obediently.

He peeked a glance at Kouji. His eyes were looking moist. He loosened his own embrace and gestured. Kouji leaned over the rail and they both wrapped one arm each around him. And they stayed like that until a nurse came wanting blood tests.

And then there were more people: nurses and doctors and even a bunch of medical students hoping to talk to a child. Tomoko looked a little amused at that. Kouji just looked confused.

'Interacting with child patients usually heavily involves the parent,' Tomoko explained. 'But when you're almost an adolescent, it's more parents just pitching in with things forgotten. With uncomplicated medical backgrounds – ' She shot an exasperated glare at her bedridden son at this. 'Don't really need the parent at all.'

And Kouichi's wasn't too complicated. Just a few extra bouts of pneumonia.


	11. Mistakes

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #16 – mistakes.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 11**

It was inevitable that the topic of their father came up, and Kouichi had avoided thinking about it.

The reason was Duskmon. Sort of.

He'd hated his father for a time. He couldn't remember whether it had been like that before Cherubimon's whispering in his ears and warping his memories – and he couldn't blame Cherubimon, who'd suffered the same at Lucemon's hands. He couldn't even blame Lucemon. He'd been too much like a child. Even after he'd caused so much damage –

See, trying to avoid thinking about his father again.

But he honestly didn't know anymore if he'd truly hated his father before the Digital World. Uncomfortable with the idea, yes, but he'd just avoided thinking or talking about it. It was him and his mother and his grandmother and his father simply didn't fit into that picture. He never had. A father wasn't someone one went to when they felt lonely, when they wanted to cuddle under blankets and talk. Yes, if his father had worked and provided, his mother wouldn't have had to so much but it didn't directly influence the greatest hole left behind: that loneliness.

But in the Digital World, he'd thought all the wrong things.


	12. Spirit

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #17 – spirit.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 12**

Did he want to meet his father?

He didn't really know. How did he feel?

It wasn't like Kouji who'd thought his mother was dead all that time only to find her alive like a dream come true. Kouichi had known his father existed. He'd just…never sought him out.

It would've been easy enough. And he would have found Kouji well before his grandmother died. They could've had years – but he hadn't. No-one had told him to actively look for his father and he hadn't made the first leap himself. Until he found out about Kouji.

Did he blame his father for things? Sometimes. His wasn't the only single mother who had trouble finding a well-paying job. His wasn't the only family that wasn't complete. It wasn't so much that but the simple fact that he came home to empty houses because his mother had odd shifts and sometimes went to sleep before she could get back. It was more that he wasn't close enough at school to anyone to invite them over – or to be invited. No-one he could really connect to so well – so knowing he had a twin led to the wild idea of a perfect spirit-connection.


	13. Fade

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #01 – fade.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 13**

He had plenty of time to think. His mother went back to work and a doctor wanted to run scans so Kouji had to go – and he went home. A good thing he did because the moment they sat him up, he vomited (and felt instantly awful) and they had to rethink their initial plans.

They managed the scans in the late afternoon when they'd given him something to calm his head – since it was nausea and not anything with his stomach. Or so they thought. But it worked so Kouichi wasn't going to complain.

And he lay in bed for the day with some intermittent visits from his mother and doctors and nurses. The others wanted to come but they called first and were told they couldn't. The scans, again. They promised to come tomorrow.

Kouichi wondered what Kouji was going to tell his father. He hadn't seemed angry, surprisingly. Or not surprisingly perhaps. What was there to be angry about? Everything? Nothing? Both of them wanted details – but now wasn't the time for that. It was about seeing, still. About meeting.

His memories of his dad are only a shadow fading into the backdrop of an open door.


	14. Deep

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #04 – deep.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 14**

Had he seen his father when looking for Kouji? He strained – and recalled the man and the woman – the three of them walking the dog. He'd forgotten – hadn't Cherubimon told him his father had left because of that woman? Except Kouji's memories had said elsewise.

Hate was such a silly word. Kouji hadn't hated his stepmother. With what he'd seen, it was easy to say. He'd just disliked the idea of a second mother. Kouichi…he thought he may have gone along with the idea. It didn't seem important somehow. It was the idea of siblings that would've been earthshattering. A child with his father – there was. Children coming along with the step-parent. There wasn't.

And he realised he was just going in circles and lying on the hospital bed was an easy way to do that. Wasn't that how he'd kept on missing Kouji? Wasn't that how he'd tripped and fallen on the stairs – but then again, would he have gotten to the Digital World otherwise?

Though so easily he could have died instead. That was a dues ex machine that probably wouldn't come again and it'd be foolish to count it.

He closed his eyes. It was settled then.


	15. Faith

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #13 – faith.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 15**

Luckily his mother knew him well – knew he'd spent ages going in circles and come to the inevitable conclusion, so she talked to their father anyhow. So his father dropped Kouji off at school, said they'd go home from the hospital together, and came to visit.

Kouichi was feeling a bit better than the day before. At least, he could slowly sit up without emptying his stomach and intestines. And he'd had a good night's sleep. Better than the next few days possibly because the scans were clear and they wanted to wean him off the painkillers and they'd start that after lunch.

So it was relatively good timing, physically speaking.

Mentally – well, he still had no clue what to say.

But his father, twitching awkwardly just like his mother the day before with Kouji, saved him the trouble. 'I'm sorry.'

Kouichi simply stared. His father didn't elaborate. He probably felt this wasn't the time for explanations either. He was expecting a generically awkward question to follow. 'How is school?' Or 'What are your hobbies?'

Granted, the question he did get was along the same veins. But still striking.

'Are you still trying to sneak books in under the table?'


	16. Out

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #06 – out.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 16**

His father remembered lots of little things, habits Kouichi either had lost or didn't really take note of. Yes, he did sneak in books under the table – especially in some more boring classes. And he didn't get caught too often – though apparently he tried bringing his first picture book to the table numerous times at two, despite being unable to read it.

And it was actually sort of…fun…hearing about all the trouble he got up to as a kid. Some stories his mother had told him. Others his father missed out. Memories worked in different ways, he supposed. It wasn't a high risk area too. Just strolling down memory lane and learning what had changed – comparing old stories and new ones, searching for common grounds.

His father grumbled over not bring a chess set from home when the others showed up: Takuya, Izumi and Kouji. Tomoki and Junpei would be along in a bit, they said. School let out at different times or something like that. Kouji looked relieved. The others just looked surprised and introductions and glossed over explanations went round.

And then their father left looking for a cup of coffee and they talked about the final battle.


	17. Blush

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #09 – blush.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 17**

Here, he really did have to explain himself, because last he'd properly talked to them (minus the scene where he'd been defibrillated and they'd all been in inconsolable tears). Because they'd had no idea what'd been going through his head when Lucemon had scanned his spirits –

Or, rather, Kouji had no idea because somehow he'd missed both loops. And he didn't looked helpful for being left out, even if it was coincidental. Because Kouichi hadn't planned on any of them knowing. But Bokomon had been understandably worried – and there'd been no time to worry afterwards with the entire Digital World a ball of data inside Lucemon.

It was a tough conversation. All of them were missing bits of knowledge and Kouichi had found out a lot of things too late – that he was a bodiless spirit wondering around (and Junpei wondered why he'd believed the Royal Knight off the bat, which he couldn't really answer), that he'd fallen down the stairs and hit his head (which was probably a bit of retrograde amnesia at work) and the last thing he remembered before the Digital World were frightened voices wondering if he was dead.

Self-sacrifice for a reason wasn't so foolish.


	18. Favour

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #08 – favour.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 18**

Kouichi explained that little epiphany he'd had: the riddle that had alluded them, a riddle that might've been solved more simply if the hadn't been in the midst of battle at the time and couldn't afford to temporarily withdraw. Maybe it was as simple as putting one's spirits into the other's D-scanners and only that (otherwise it would've been triggered when Kouji hyper-spirit evolved). Or maybe it wasn't. For all they knew, nothing else could've been done – but it was over now and that was the silver lining and the relief. They didn't need to squirm around in what-ifs and feel more scared and awful about things. They could think about the future.

And they did that – after a scolding that ended with all of them laughing because five kids string to scold a sixth isn't really a success recipe.

But on the whole, everything was going well. Too well, perhaps, but nobody wanted to jinx everything. They could talk as easily as they had in the Digital World – more easily, perhaps, because there was no enemy lurking overhead. And the twins had met their parents and no volcano had erupted.


	19. Free

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #10 – free.

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 19**

It was slow, but steady. He got better one day at a time until the doctors were sure he hadn't come away with any lasting damage and he was sure he wasn't going to fall down or throw up while walking up and down to other floors. They kept him an extra night waiting on some final tests – but that was it. It was behind them: the adventure, the repercussions. He'd be going home tomorrow – and home meant to his mother, while Kouji would call until he got scolded over the phone bill, and then they'd alternate. Their father promised he'd scold in a couple of weeks – let Kouji get the worry and fear out of his system first. That was more important than pride after all.

It was almost funny now, knowing that Lucemon's representative sin was pride. All of them had a lot of pride, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing – if they could find compromise. If they didn't drive walls between people or relationships because of it – or bury themselves into deeper holes. If they could use the ropes to draw together rather than tie limbs and trip over. If they could save instead of stop.


	20. Leaving

**A/N:** This time it's prompt #20 – writer's choice: leaving. Leaving to last of course. :)

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 **Hospital Visits  
Drabble 20**

The doctor was the last to come, but they expected that. It was a side-effect of everyone else coming early – though there was no guarantee the doctor wouldn't have been the last in any case. They didn't all fit and it was an amazing sight, watching Junpei give Tomoki a firm little push so he could fit in the little corner between Tomoko's chair and the bedside table.

And it was only because he was going hope that morning that the doctor didn't complain, but simply did his job and left again. Last to come, first to leave, first to give well-wishes and the only one to not see the wheelchair.

The kids had a good laugh over that. The nurses too, watching the others try one at a time before, finally, Kouichi. It was one of those things they might never sit in again and it was novel, exciting – and embarrassing as everyone wanted to wheel him about afterwards. It took an awfully long time to get to the entrance too, but it was still fun. The sort of adventures the real world had to offer. Where they could be children again and there were adults to keep watch.


End file.
